Privacy Score
Privacy Comparison at a Glance
Key Concerns
Privacy Issues with Perplexity
Search queries are retained indefinitely while your account is active. No specific retention period is published for consumer plans — only that personal information is removed within 30 days of account deletion (as of early 2026).
Data is used for training by default on consumer plans (Free, Pro, Max). An opt-out toggle exists in settings, but previously collected training data may persist even after opting out (as of early 2026).
Perplexity shares approximately 36% of collected data with third parties, including AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic), analytics tools, and advertising partners, per third-party analysis of the privacy policy (as of early 2026).
Perplexity's CEO has publicly stated the company wants to collect data about users' shopping habits, travel, dining, and browsing to build profiles for targeted advertising (as of early 2026).
Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max offer substantially different terms — zero data retention with providers, no training, DPAs, and SOC 2 Type II. These protections are not available to individual consumer users (as of early 2026).
In August 2025, Cloudflare published research showing Perplexity was using undeclared crawlers to evade robots.txt directives, making 3-6 million daily stealth requests. Cloudflare delisted Perplexity as a verified bot.
Side by Side
Perplexity vs Wysor: Privacy Comparison
| Privacy Aspect | Wysor | Perplexity |
|---|---|---|
Data Retention | Zero retention — binding legal agreements with every provider | Searches retained indefinitely while account is active. No specific retention limit published for consumer plans (as of early 2026) |
Training on Your Data | Never, on any plan — contractually prohibited | Used for training by default on consumer plans. Opt-out available in settings (as of early 2026) |
Third-Party Sharing | No sharing beyond DPA-covered AI providers | ~36% of collected data shared with third parties including advertising partners, per privacy policy analysis (as of early 2026) |
GDPR Compliance | EU data processing, full GDPR compliance | US-based; claims GDPR compliance but SOC 2 and formal certifications apply primarily to enterprise tier (as of early 2026) |
Voice Data | Processed on your phone — audio never leaves the device | Voice assistant available on iOS, Android, and desktop. On-device STT claimed but not confirmed in official privacy policy (as of early 2026) |
Consumer vs. Enterprise Privacy | Identical protections on Free, Plus, and Premium | Enterprise Pro/Max offer ZDR and no training. Consumer plans: training by default, no DPA, no ZDR (as of early 2026) |
Data Collection Scope | Only the conversation — no profiling, no ad targeting | CEO confirmed collecting data on shopping, travel, dining, and browsing habits for targeted advertising (as of early 2026) |
The Private Alternative
Wysor integrates Perplexity's search capabilities with binding agreements that guarantee zero retention and no training. You get sourced, web-connected answers without your searches being stored indefinitely or used for ad targeting.
Why search privacy matters
Chat conversations can be open-ended. Search queries are specific by nature — they're designed to find precise information.
A sequence of Perplexity searches can paint a detailed picture of what you're researching: competitive analysis, legal questions, market trends, due diligence. For professionals handling sensitive research, the specificity of search queries makes data handling particularly relevant.
Perplexity retains these queries indefinitely while your account is active (as of early 2026). No specific retention limit is published for consumer plans.
What the privacy policy says
Perplexity's data handling (as of early 2026) has several points worth reviewing:
- Retention: Searches are kept as long as your account exists. There's no published retention limit for consumer query data — only that personal information is removed within 30 days of account deletion.
- Training: Data is used for model improvement by default on consumer plans. An opt-out toggle exists, but previously collected training data may persist even after you opt out.
- Third-party sharing: According to third-party analysis, approximately 36% of collected data is shared with third parties — including AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic), analytics tools, cloud infrastructure partners, and increasingly, advertising partners.
- Advertising ambitions: Perplexity's CEO has publicly acknowledged the company wants to gather data about users' shopping habits, travel, dining, and browsing to build user profiles for targeted advertising.
The consumer vs. enterprise gap
Enterprise Pro and Enterprise Max (as of early 2026) offer substantially different privacy terms:
- Zero data retention with third-party AI providers
- No training on customer data — contractually prohibited
- DPAs available with GDPR-compliant terms
- SOC 2 Type II certification
- Custom retention periods and force-deletion capabilities (50+ Enterprise Pro seats or 1+ Enterprise Max seat)
- Uploaded files auto-deleted after 7 days
None of these protections are available to individual users on Free, Pro, or Max plans. The privacy gap between consumer and enterprise Perplexity is significant.
Trust considerations
Perplexity has faced several privacy-related incidents worth noting:
- August 2025: Cloudflare published research showing Perplexity was using undeclared crawlers to evade robots.txt directives — making 3-6 million daily stealth requests impersonating Chrome browsers. Cloudflare delisted Perplexity as a verified bot and blocked its stealth crawlers.
- November 2025: Security researchers found Perplexity's Comet browser contained a hidden MCP API with two undisableable extensions, potentially allowing execution of arbitrary commands on users' devices.
- Ongoing litigation: Publishers including the New York Times have accused Perplexity of content scraping.
These incidents don't necessarily reflect the current state of data handling, but they provide context about the company's approach to data boundaries.
How Wysor approaches this differently
Wysor integrates Perplexity's search capabilities through binding agreements that provide clearly defined data handling:
- Zero retention: Your searches aren't stored — not indefinitely, not at all
- No training: Data is never used for model improvement
- No ad targeting: No profiling for advertising purposes
- No ambiguity: Clear, binding terms — not a privacy policy that permits sharing with unspecified partners
And you get more than search. Need to follow up a research query with Claude for deep analysis? Or GPT-5 for drafting a memo based on what you found? Same workspace. Same privacy terms. No switching between tools with different data handling policies.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. On consumer plans, search queries are retained indefinitely while your account is active. No specific retention limit is published. Personal information is removed within 30 days of account deletion (as of early 2026).
Yes, by default on consumer plans (Free, Pro, Max). An opt-out is available in settings, but previously collected data may persist. Enterprise tiers are excluded from training by default (as of early 2026).
Yes. The privacy policy permits sharing with service providers, analytics tools, AI providers, and advertising partners. Third-party analysis estimates ~36% of collected data is shared (as of early 2026).
On consumer plans, searches are stored indefinitely, used for training by default, and shared with third parties including ad partners. Enterprise Pro offers stronger terms. Through Wysor, the same search capabilities are available with zero-retention protections.
Wysor integrates Perplexity's search with binding privacy agreements. Sourced, real-time answers with zero retention, no training, and no ad-targeting data collection — on every plan including free.
Switch to a private Perplexity alternative
Get contractual privacy guarantees on every plan — including free. No data retention, no training on your data, no human review.
Try Wysor FreeEditorial note: This privacy comparison was created by the Wysor team. All information reflects publicly available privacy policies and terms of service as of March 2026. Privacy policies change frequently. We recommend verifying details on Perplexity's official website before making a decision.
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